


Safe and Sound

by Rockingham



Category: Choices: High School Story: Class Act (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-15 18:23:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18504538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rockingham/pseuds/Rockingham
Summary: Continuation of "Too Cold For You Here"Skye and Bailey bond over pancakes.





	Safe and Sound

Bailey feels herself slowing waking up from her deep slumber to the warmth of morning light against the side of her face. She becomes more aware of the fact that her arm is completely asleep. With a light groan she tires to move the appendage only to find it trapped. 

Blinking back the tug of sleep she opens her eyes to see why she can’t move her arm.

_Oh._

Skye is still fast asleep next to her, red hair catching the early morning sun like fire. Bailey catches the faint smell of her own shampoo coming off the other girl as Bailey remembers Skye showing up at her doorstep the night before.

Bailey shifts slightly, needing to move her arm but not really wanting to wake up the other occupant of the bed. Frosty notices her awake and sits up eagerly.

“You gotta go out boy?” Bailey asks as Frosty lets out a little whine. Bailey looks back down at Skye and thinks for a moment. Using her free hand, she attempts to support Skye’s head while she slides her arm out from underneath her. The second she tries to ease Skye’s head back onto the pillow she sees the other girl stir in her sleep.

Bailey freezes, hoping not to disturb the other girl more, she feels guilty when she sees blue eyes blink open lazily against the morning sun. 

“Morning, Sleepyhead.” Bailey offered quietly as the redhead looked up at her, confused for a second as she took in her surroundings. Skye sighs as she sits up in bed, running her hands over her face.

“Morning.” Skye’s voice is raspy and she stretches for a second, looking insanely adorable with her messy hair and Bailey’s clothes.

“He he,”

“What’s so funny?” Skye asks when the giggle escapes Bailey’s lips. 

“Nothing really,” Bailey paused looking at Skye with a soft smile, “You’re just really cute.”

A light pink dusts over Skye’s face as she tries to keep a straight face. Giving Bailey a sigh, Skye resorts to running her hand through her messy hair, revealing a little of the dark bruise she had shown Bailey the night before.

“How are you feeling?” Bailey asks when Skye drops her arm back to the bed. The redhead seems to think over the question before answering.

“Better I think.” Skye answers before her expression turns a little sadder, “I’m sorry, by the way, for waking you up. And for making you deal with my baggage at one in the morning.”

“I don’t mind!”

“You don’t have to say that, I know I’m not the easiest person to be around.”

“I mean it.” Bailey offers reaching forward to place a hand on Skye’s arm. “I don’t mind, you can wake me up at whatever time of night. I want to be there for you.”

Skye shifts at little as Bailey speaks, breaking eye contact with the other girl.

“I know things aren’t easy for you at home,” Bailey continues carefully, knowing she’s getting close to a particularly sore topic, “I actually feel a lot better knowing you will run to me instead of running away.”

Skye flinched a little at that, “I’m still sorry about worrying everyone like that.”

“We know,” Bailey smiled as she began rubbing her hand against Skye’s arm, “But it’s  _okay_. I’m just glad you didn’t leave. And I’m serious about you being allowed to wake me up whenever you need me.”

“Okay,” Skye offered a half-smile, not quite meeting her eyes but genuine enough for Bailey to know she meant it. Frosty whines again and Bailey jumps up.

“Right! I was supposed to take you out huh boy?” Frosty wags his tail and Bailey laughs, “OK, OK.”

Bailey slips on her sneakers as Frosty circles her. Bailey pauses for a moment, looking back at Skye.

“We should make pancakes together! It’ll be fun! I know how to make really good strawberry and chocolate chip pancakes if you’re up to it?” 

Skye offers the other girl a bigger smile, “Yeah, let’s do it.”

Bailey beams as she gives a little excited noise before opening the door and leading the large white dog down the stairs and to the backyard of the house to do his business. The backyard was muddy from the late rain and Frosty looks over at the puddles with an interested look.

“Don’t you dare! We just bathed you!”

Frosty looks up at her before slinking away from the puddle. Bailey shakes her head and scans the backyard. The rain had been pretty bad last night, it was hard to believe Skye walked through the mess to her house.

Frosty comes bouncing back up to her after a few minutes, tail wagging and ready for breakfast. Bailey laughs as she walks back into the house with the dog at her side, Skye had made herself at home in the kitchen, glancing over the newspaper Bailey’s father had probably been reading.

“Ready to rock?” Bailey asks over enthusiastically as she joins the redhead in the kitchen. 

“Sure, what do you need me to do?”

Bailey smiles as the two work side by side in the kitchen putting together the batter for the pancakes, Bailey tasks Skye with the dry ingredients while she works on the wet, regaling a story of her and Casey at the aquarium on an old elementary school class trip.

“And that’s why I don’t understand why people are more scared of sharks then killer whales.” Bailey ended with a smile as Skye passes her the bowl to mix the contents of the two bowls together.

“A compelling argument.” Skye says as her lips quirk up in a smile, “What next?”

“Strawberries, they’re in the fridge, can you cut those for me?” Bailey asks with a bright smile as she watches the shorter girl nod. “So, it’s your turn now,”

“My turn?”

“Yeah! I want to know more about you. So you should share a story.” Bailey insisted as Skye gives a little hum as she thinks.

“I don’t really have any good family outing stories, unless you want to hear about the second time my parents lost me at the zoo.”

“It doesn’t have to be-Wait! Second time?” Bailey looked over her shoulder at the other girl with a surprised look. “Doesn’t that usually only happen once? And why is the second time more interesting then the first?”

“The first time I was five so I don’t really remember it much. Except for the panic when I realized I was alone and the crying until someone found me.” Skye shrugged. “The second time I was eight or nine, so I remember it better.“

“OK, I’ve gotta know now, If you want to tell me that is.” Bailey added quickly seeing Skye’s lips quirk up again slightly.

“Well, I got separated from everyone about twenty minutes in. I forget how, I think I was watching the penguins or whatever and just wasn’t paying attention.

It didn’t feel like a big deal then, I was used to my parents misplacing me when we went out. They’d be paying attention to whoever they were trying to impress or Brian and completely forget I was there. So I just wondered the zoo by myself. I liked to sketch out the habitats that were set up and the animals, Brian never sat still at an exhibit long enough for me to finish a drawing, so I usually never finished anything when I stuck with them.”

“Is that the beginning of your set design thing?” Bailey asks with a smile.

“In a way, yeah. I liked how they could make any exhibit look like a different place. How they could mimic someplace miles away well enough for an animal to call it home.” Skye explained as she cut the fruit in front of her. “After a few hours I started to get worried that my parents were going to realize how far I got and be angry. I was sketching the otter exhibit when I feel someone sit next to me.

So I turn to see who it was, and Brian was just sitting here, watching the otters while I sketched. After a few minutes, he looks over my shoulder at my sketch, says ‘Looks good, Sis.’ and then gets up and goes over to the wall of the exhibit and watches the otters from there.

When our parents finally found us Brian told them he had been watching me the whole time. They were so proud of him for being responsible and didn’t yell at me for getting separated from them.”

“So, your brother used to cover for you?” Bailey chanced a look at the other girl who’s cutting slowed down a bit since her brother had entered the story.

“He used to. A lot actually. For a long time he was the only one who acknowledged the things I liked. It was just little things, he’d throw me a ‘good job’ or ‘that’s cool, Sis.’ But it meant a lot to think there was someone who cared about what I was interested in.”

“So…what happened?”

“He decided it was easier just to throw me under the bus. Brian was always my parent’s favorite, but when he joined sports teams and became some star athlete for Berry my parents were more enthusiastic then ever about it. He is there favorite thing to talk about and he likes it that way. He used sticking up for me as an excuse to make me do things for him, usually homework, chores he didn’t want to do. The real snapping point was the baseball game when he tried to hit that girl.”

“When you started telling people you two weren’t related.”

“Yeah,” Skye hesitates, thinking over her next words. “I shouldn’t have said it, but I never expected him to be so angry about it. He said I betrayed him because of everything he’s done for me. That I’m being an idiot complaining about how our parents treat me and that I should just do what they want and get over it.”

“I’m sorry.” Bailey said as she looked over at the redhead, “I didn’t know you two used to be close.”

“No, never really close, we didn’t really hang out together or anything,” Skye corrected as she turned back to her task. “I guess he just used to tolerate me more then our parents did.”

“So…did he give you the bruise on your arm?” 

“I forgot I told you about that.” Skye commented with a sigh, “Yeah, he grabbed me when I tried to walk away.”

Bailey doesn’t know what to say, but she know she should probably switch the subject, “What was your favorite zoo animal?”

“…you’ll laugh.”

“I won’t! I promise!” 

“…the red pandas.”

“Of course, the most  _metal_  of the bears.”

“Shut  _up_.” 

Bailey laughs as she feels a piece of strawberry hit her in the face, Skye’s shaking her head at her, a smile teasing the corners of her mouth. 

“I was expecting you to say bats or panther or something more…you know…goth?” Bailey laughs as Skye tries to glare at her, trying not to laugh a little despite herself.

“I was nine these were the early goth stages.”

“Of course,” Bailey reasoned with a nod, Skye quirks an eyebrow at her. “No more jokes, I promise.”

“You said that about laughing.” Skye pointed out.

“Ok Ok, pinky promise, no more jokes.” Bailey holds out her pinky to Skye as the other girl stares at her. “Come on!”

Skye sighs as she brings her hand up, intertwining her pinky with Bailey’s as the other girl grins.

“Good! Now we can start putting together the pancakes, I’m hungry.” Bailey says as she pulls away. “The pan’s hot too, perfect!”

Bailey puts on a serious face as she pours some of the batter in the pan quickly moving to add the strawberries and chocolate chips as it cooks.

“…wouldn’t it be easier to add everything to the mix before pouring it.”

“But then they wouldn’t be fluffy.” Bailey corrected as she looked over to see Skye with her head tilted as if this was a foreign concept to her. “And over-mixing wouldn’t be good for them either…wait, have you really never made pancakes before?”

“Unless they go in the microwave for sixty seconds, nope.” 

“But-” Bailey looks over at the perfectly cut strawberries and back at Skye, “Your knife cuts were so good, I thought for sure you spent some time in the kitchen before.”

“Oh, not really, whenever my whole family decides to get together I get stuck in the kitchen with my aunt and grandmother cutting vegetables.” Skye explained, “I just figured fruit and vegetables were close enough.”

“…that sentence hurt me.”

Skye snorts as Bailey sets up another pancake in the pan, she waits as the two cook.

“How do you know when they’re  _burning_.”

“…why did you say that like that?”

“What do you mean?” 

“Like you might be excited about the possibility of something burning.” Bailey explains looking over at the girl again, “Skye, you’re scaring me.”

 Skye laughs and Bailey takes a second to register the other girl was messing with her. She grins as Skye’s laugh echoes through her house. Bailey shakes her head, trying to look upset.

“You were messing with me.” 

“A little,” Skye admits with a smile, “I couldn’t help it, you’ve never kept a serious face for that long.”

“Pancakes are serious!” Bailey insists, “And for your information, they take about two minutes on each side to cook.”

Bailey flips the pancakes when they are ready, when they are done she transfers them to a plate and pours two more on the pan, after a few minutes she turns to Skye.

“You try now.”

“That’s a terrible idea.” 

“Come on, I have faith in you!” Bailey insists as she hands the spatula to Skye. The first one she moves too quick and it splatters a bit over the rest of the pan. With a little instruction she’s able to get the other flipped without too much back-splash. “See easy!”

Bailey leaves Skye at the stove, which she insists is a terrible idea, while she sets the plates on the table. Bailey smiles through breakfast, watching Skye eat and try to keep the spark of childish excitement off her face. She didn’t mind starting her morning like this. She even hoped that maybe she can convince Skye to stay over more.


End file.
